Fredag 12 december 2014

Under torsdagen gick polisen in för att avlägsna de sista ockupanterna från protestlägret i Admiralty i centrala Hongkong. 209 personer uppges ha gripits för att ha deltagit i en olaglig samling och förhindrat poliserna att utföra sitt arbete. Bland de sista ockupanterna på plats fanns bland annat en anarkistisk grupp som anklagats av andra demonstranter för att ha velat förvandla protesterna till en ”karneval”: The anarchists shared some of the protesters’ visions, like land justice and welfare overhaul, but not their desire to seek change through established channels. They were unenthusiastic about calls for democracy and electoral reform when Hong Kong’s capitalist system, which they describe as toxic, would remain. These divisions led to tensions, at times, with the more combative and doctrinaire activists in Mong Kok, who tended to regard the anarchists as lacking in zeal /…/ They accused the anarchists of trivializing the struggle and turning it into a carnival, and went so far as to distribute a poster that labelled Ah Lai a Chinese Communist Party informant.

I ett officiellt meddelande uppger centralregeringen att man ger sitt stöd till de lokala myndigheterna och ställer sig bakom avlägsnandet av ockupanterna. The central government ”fully agrees and firmly supports” the Hong Kong government and police’s decisions to stop these illegal activities, thereby maintaining social order and safeguarding the rule of law, said a statement from the State Council Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office.

I ett uttalande som kom efter torsdagens möte om den ekonomiska politiken uppger regeringen att man ska hålla tillväxten stabil och anpassa sig till ”det nya normalläget”, det vill säga en långsammare men mera ”högkvalitativ” tillväxt. At the meeting, the leaders including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang stressed that the economy still faces many challenges and ”relatively big” downward pressures such as increasing difficulties for businesses and the emergence of economic risks /…/ The statement fell short of setting a target for 2015, which is usually made public in March, but said the authorities will be ”reasonable” in setting such goals.

CIA:s tortyrprogram, som återigen blivit aktuellt i och med den amerikanska senatens utredning, är baserat på ett program kallat SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) som skulle förbereda soldater i flygvapnet för den behandling de skulle bli utsatta för om de togs tillfånga av den kinesiska eller nordvietnamesiska fienden. Metoderna som CIA använde i sina förhör med misstänkta terrorister har alltså inspirerats av kinesiska tortyrmetoder som utvecklades för att få fram erkännanden, inte för att genom förhör få reda på ny information. The SERE program was established by the U.S. military in the 1950s to prepare its personnel at high risk of capture to resist torture at the hands of the enemy. Previously during the Korean War, Chinese and North Korean communists subjected American prisoners to brutal torture and propaganda measures. This harsh treatment took not only a physical and mental toll on American prisoners individually, it decimated morale and mutual support among the POWs as a group. Following termination of hostilities in Korea and the POWs’ release, 21 Americans refused repatriation, choosing instead to remain in China. Some former prisoners who returned to the U.S. were charged with crimes including treason, desertion and mistreatment of fellow prisoners.

USA lär sig tortyr av Kina och Kina lär sig kolonial repression av Frankrike. Urumqi, huvudstad i den autonoma regionen Xinjiang, har förbjudit bärandet av slöja på offentliga platser. Officials in Urumqi, the capital of the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, have approved a ban on Islamic veils in public, according to a message posted on Thursday on the Xinjiang regional government’s website. The citywide ban, approved on Wednesday, formalizes into law a set of rules that the city’s police officers have been trying to impose on Muslims. For months, signs in Muslim neighborhoods of Urumqi have warned women against wearing veils or long head scarves and men against growing long beards.